Semiconductor devices are used in a variety of electronic applications, such as personal computers, cell phones, digital cameras, and other electronic equipment. Semiconductor devices are typically fabricated by sequentially depositing insulating or dielectric layers, conductive layers, and semiconductive layers of material over a semiconductor substrate, and patterning the various material layers using lithography to form circuit components and elements thereon. Many integrated circuits are typically manufactured on a single semiconductor wafer, and individual dies on the wafer are singulated by sawing between the integrated circuits along a scribe line.
Multiple gate field-effect transistors (MuGFETs) are a recent development in semiconductor technology which typically are metal oxide semiconductor FETs (MOSFETs) that incorporate more than one gate into a single device. One type of MuGFET is referred to as a FinFET, which is a transistor structure with a fin-like semiconductor channel that is raised vertically away from a substrate of an integrated circuit. A recent design for FinFETs is a gate all around (GAA) FinFET, which has a gate material that surrounds a channel region on all sides.
Although existing MuGFET devices and methods of fabricating MuGFET devices have been generally adequate for their intended purpose, they have not been entirely satisfactory in all aspects.